Who are "webmasters"?

2023-10-25 09:09:00, Tech CNA

This year, humanity passed the mark of eight billion inhabitants of the planet. While 5.4 billion people already use the Internet. Although the use of the worldwide electronic network has become an everyday occurrence, few have heard of the organization that is responsible for the smooth use of the Internet. Its full name is "Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers", ICANN for short.

The 78th meeting of the World Internet Administration Organization is being held this week in Hamburg. For the first time in 20 years, the conference is being held again in Germany, where 2500 participants from the field of research, information technology, politics, economy, non-governmental sector have gathered.

What is ICANN?

The non-profit organization was founded in 1998 with the aim of guaranteeing the safe, uninterrupted and stable use of the Internet, and to create a unique global network. Therefore they see ICANN in the role of a kind of "administrator of the Internet". In order for electronic messages to find their address or to open the desired web page, it is necessary to assign a domain and a site address. This organization helps assign these domains and addresses.

Who are "webmasters"?

The browser finds default Internet domain addresses, for example www.dw.com, where "dw" is the domain name and "com" is the so-called "Internet top-level domain". "Com" or "net" are mostly for organizations, but there are other domains for countries (Germany, for example, is "de").

However, devices that are connected to the Internet find a unique page number - an IP address (Internet Protocol address). Similar to a phone number, it is needed for communication between two devices. The address must be correct in order for messages to reach their destination. ICANN, with the help of so-called "numbering authorities" in the US and Europe, has been assigning such numbers for 25 years.

NATURE

The organization was created in 1998 at the initiative of the then US president Bill Clinton. But only in 2016 did the United States transfer the oversight role to this organization. The organization advocates a philosophy according to which Internet issues should not be decided by states alone, but by representatives of all interested actors. ICANN even formulates its organizational culture so that all Internet users have the opportunity to co-decide on it.

Who are "webmasters"?

ICANN consists of three parts. The first part is the so-called community, consisting of global organizations, alliances, business representatives, individual Internet users and government representatives. Together they work out the instructions. The second part is the governing board of the organization, which is responsible for the strategic direction of the organization. He is elected by the community. And the third part, the professional management structure of the organization, serves as support for personnel and resources for the community and the board of administration. ICANN, according to its own statements, works on a "bottom-up" principle. The governing board does not determine the topics that will be on the agenda, but the community decides on them, according to its subgroups.

Who are "webmasters"?

Despite the open organizational structure, due to the many interest groups, there are conflicting views on some of the issues. One of them is: to what extent the Internet should be open and should it be free. For example, at the beginning of the Russian invasion last year, Ukraine demanded that Russia be cut off from the Internet. ICANN rejected this request, arguing that it should remain "neutral".

Rules of action

The Hamburg conference, which takes place from October 21 to 26, should clarify under which rules stakeholders can participate in the process of assigning so-called "generic top-level domains" (gTLDs), which from 2026 it will not be limited to countries, but will be thematically connected at the global level.

An example already exists. Behind the Internet top-level domain "org" are often non-profit organizations, regardless of the country of origin. In Hamburg, a regulation should be introduced to establish requirements for the allocation of these domains. And of course there will be talk about the further development of an open, free and safe Internet./ DW